Wider Church Happenings

Tomorrow morning I’ll be driving up to Goshen for three days of meetings with the Mennonite Church USA Constituency Leaders Council.  The CLC is an advisory and listening group – rather than decision-making body — made up of representatives of area conferences and constituency groups.  As the President-elect of Central…

Over Half…

What if the majority of the world’s 8 billion people could share in a season of spiritual grounding?  What if over half of humanity would focus, all at the same time, on the practices that lead to harmony within oneself and justice in society?  Well… The Muslim month of Ramadan…

Midweek Blog: On Enchantment

I recently finished the book Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May. The title jumped out at me because my interests around creativity and spiritual formation leave me intrigued at the idea of “awakening wonder.” What’s more, the term “enchantment” is one way that I think we…

“The Divine Politics of Lament”

The subject line comes from a presentation I heard last Thursday: “Professional Mourners, Grieving Mothers, and the Divine Politics of Lament.”  This was part of the annual two-day Schooler Institute at Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO).  The speaker was CMCer Dr. Ryan Schellenberg.     Some things I’m stilling pondering:…

Do You Sense What I Sense?

The Advent and Christmas seasons are quickly approaching, and this year we will be focusing our worship services around the theme “Do You Sense What I Sense?”  This is a play on the familiar song, “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, and while the lyrics to that song ask about…